#31: Alien
A light flashed in the night sky but soon blinded the view as it crashed through Earth's atmosphere. It swiftly flew over the United States before hitting Hawaii's main island. The clouds above the island cleared with a light blue wave traveling from the point of impact outward, but it faded over Kauai. A few natives came by the devastating trail the light left and followed the destroyed trees to (what they considered) a dark purple ship with an odd symbol on the helm. Two of the group's members went closer but stopped as the top opened.
A growl emitted from the opening and a form made itself visible. Unfortunately for the group of natives, the figure appeared pitch black like their surroundings. They started to panic as the now non-visible creature hissed in all directions, making it impossible to calculate where it truly resided. A lightning bolt revealed the figure's position along with red tribal designs, red slit-pupil eyes, and multiple rows of jagged, long teeth. It reared up on its hind legs and spread its bat-like wings for intimidation. To the natives, it seemed to have a long anteater-like nose with a large T-Rex-like jaw underneath. The beast roared with its four-clawed hand swiping at the ground; its tail hit the wilderness floor in a rage.
The natives ran as far as they could into the city of Hilo screaming in fear. They assembled a team of police and armed citizens and returned to the crash site where their unwelcome visitor supposedly stayed. When they finally reached the site, they found the monster had left but its ship still lingered in a wall of dirt and trees. The police could not believe their eyes and called the U.S. government immediately. The natives did not know what to do, for they believed their new "guest" went into the vast jungles of Hawaii, calling, waiting for help from more of its species to arrive.
#32: Fishing
Captain Silos' dragon-like tail twitched in the water as he waited on the edge of a small island in the middle of the mile wide lake. Several Metal Heads swam on the other side, not wanting to disrupt their Captain's peace. At the end of his tail, a couple worms struggled on the sharp spikes as they felt movement within the vast watery environment. The Captain merely closed his eyes as he laid on all fours and his underbelly.
Suddenly, he felt something bite his tail. The rhino Metal Head wanted to let out a snarl of pain but kept it from breaching his close mouth. Silos pulled his tail up to find a fellow Metal Head latched onto its tip. Angered by this action as his subordinate gave an apologetic smile, he dislocated the monster from his tail and threw him across the remaining half of the lake with astounding force. He then reattached a couple of new worms and dunked his appendage back into the water.
Before he could settle down again, his tail caught something, and he hurriedly reeled it in again. There, in broad daylight, hung a seventeen foot Sturgeon that also measured roughly five feet in width. This surprised the Captain, for most Sturgeons stayed skinny but this one must have eaten too much. He viewed his trophy fish prize in pride and knew he would have a great lunch after all.
#33: Pastoral
The cattle moved swiftly as the sun broke through the dark horizon. The soldiers herded the livestock into the four main barns with flocks of sheep trailing not far behind. As the organic herds of horses, cattle, sheep, and other animals resided in the barns, the soldiers then attempted to congregate the techno-organic animals (part machine, part organic animal) into a pen, but some refused to collaborate with the mercenaries. A green and brown-spiked techno-organic bull, Spike, started to ram into anything in his way in anger while Draco, a blue and black hippogriff, tried to pull away from a group of soldiers who tried to calm him.
Spike scared off a portion of the cattle in an attempt to escape the barnyard. He soon stopped to catch a couple breaths before plowing through another herd of cattle towards the gates. The rural area, however, prevented him from leaving, for he stood over eight feet tall and the archway over the gate stood only five feet off the ground. Thick trees acted like walls around the barns; he could not get out.
Draco broke free from his bonds and tried to fly but found that one of his wings had dislocated during the fight. Both he and Spike had no choice but to return. They would escape eventually but not right now.
#34: Catharsis
The truck had rust covering its chassis and underside as it sat in the tall grass. Two soldiers pushed it from its grave and onto a large tow truck that waited patiently for its new cargo. The tow truck began to head North with a few soldiers hitching a ride in the back with the grey-brown automobile; the truck's dents lingered on its frame but did not go unnoticed by wandering eyes. Finally, the soldier's ride pulled up to a motorcar body shop, and two shop workers pulled the rotting gas-guzzler from the tow truck's compact trailer. The mercenaries watched silently as the junker rolled onto a platform, and the crew members began to fix all the rusted parts. As the body shop workers did there thing, a truck battery and a box of a glowing blue substance awaited the 10-wheeler on a table nearby. The workers finished the repairs after several hours and went to the Decals and Detailing station where several men stood with their tools at the ready. The coloring took a while too, but their job finally ceased.
The gas-guzzler now held a main black coloring with sky blue tribal designs expanding all over its frame. A tribal dragon symbol perched itself on the hood while two wings dominated the 10-wheeler's doors. Sky blue metal spikes attached on the truck's front and spine glimmered impressively as the light reflected off of the now-cleansed semi.
The soldiers then hooked up the battery and placed the blue substance on the engine. The blue box melted almost immediately, and the engine absorbed the liquid energy hungrily as if it was practically starving to death. The battery electrocuted the truck's engine with a massive jolt, making the blue substance pulse almost in a rhythm. Suddenly, the 10-wheeler sprang to life and let out a baritone laugh. The spikes on the truck rattled out of order before pausing and in unison, moved to and from the truck's body like they were stretching. The windshield illuminated a light blue once it made sure all its appendages were in working order. The frame above the windshield bent to resemble someone angry, but the bumper twisted into a slight grin. The soldiers smiled as their long lost friend awoke.
#35: Didacticism
Tigressa stood next to her Captain with her claws behind her back as they stared at the museum's paintings and literature. All the humans that used to roam the halls before they had arrived had vanished into thin air from fear so they had the museum to themselves. The art of Leonardo da Vinci, the "Mona Lisa", hung in front of them. The Captain tried to explain what the painting meant, but Tigressa did not care. Silos sighed as they moved on; the paintings of Picasso, Monet, Michelangelo, Raphael, and other famous artists flowed by the two monsters with the tiger-dragon receiving a lecture about each and every one by the Captain.
She rolled her eyes and continued down the halls that she barely squeezed into without cracking the ceiling. One painting caught her optics and caused her to stop with Captain Silos bumping into her rear accidentally. She only raised a brow and peered back for a second before bringing her focus on the canvas. The label below read "Starry Night - Vincent van Gogh"; to her, the art only looked like a bunch of swirls, but to her Captain, it appeared to have a moral to it.
He began explaining what the picture meant while Tigressa stared at it, bewildered almost. Silos told the tiger-dragon about van Gogh's inspiration and how the painting told different stories to different individuals. Tigressa realized the canvas reminded her of an old twisted rock formation on her home planet; but unlike the painting, the view had three moons and the buildings were instead skyscrapers among canopies of jungle.
Silos stopped his lecturing and smiled. He had never seen his master so amazed by a mere human's creation of paint. Tigressa eventually snapped out of her trance and continued on; she actually listened to her Captain from then on and soon found the art enlightening to her dark mind. Finally, they finished the tour and noticed sirens and tanks waiting for them on the outside. Both grinned and charged; they had never spent much time together, but for once, it was admittedly worth it.
#36: Dadaism
The old buildings of Paris lit up and outshined the night above. The Metal Heads slumbered peacefully among the towering homes but one did not. Most called her Crâne Forte, or "Strong Skull", and she loved art but hated the fact that it always had to appear realistic both in writings and hand-crafted pieces. She heard, however, that men like Tristan Tzara had defied this rule and created something that resembled the horror abomination, Frankenstein's Monster, yet held an expression unlike anything the world had ever seen. It was brilliant how the most disfigured piece could say much more than that of a realistic portrait.
She grew interested in the new art style and studied it, practiced it until she finally was able to join the Dadaists in secret. The Dadaists surprisingly knew she was not like the other Metal Heads and were more than willing to train her in more methods than that of her idols'. What she was known for often was painted creatures, sometimes made from fonts of words, from her home dimension with parts from other animals. Most on the outside disliked her canvases including Tigressa for the latter felt she was becoming too diverse, but the Dadaists continued to urge her to do more. After a while, the citizens of Paris grew intrigued by her artwork and she appreciated the recognition greatly but some still tried to get her arrested; none succeeded. For who would take a mere "animal" into custody for painting?
#37: Tricky
Blueprints scattered the metallic floor with designs more complex than the 'CERN's Large Hadron Collider. Phantasmos quickly calculated the physical properties and inserted them into his computer system. But as he continued, he noticed one of the equations did not fit the calculative needs for his project. The quantum phaser could not operate with the formula given; he soon realized his plan just got too complex and if he did not set a new equation as a replacement immediately, his project would fail.
Phantasmos programmed the machine with an extra formula stored in his computers which he doubted would help him, but he had no choice since a new formula could take years to create. He set the equation's properties in the machine with skepticism and fear. The formula could present itself as a great risk, but he decided to continue anyway. After all, science must march on no matter what casualties stand in the way.
He activated the large device and watched as it began to power up. The machine stuttered for a bit and Phantasmos looked to the ground in disappointment. Suddenly, the device started to rotate as bolts of electricity collided with the floor. He peered up to the machine with glee, for he made a huge risk with the extra formula and it actually worked.
#38: Invention
Phantasmos knew more than any Earth scientist and outranked most scientists on his home planet. His mind rivaled even the Gods, for he used his genius to create new possibilities with time and space. One of his achievements destroyed his competitors' hopes and dreams. The Phelixius (as he called it) manipulated time where someone could not only go into the past and the future, but they could also ask for anything from any time era and it would appear. It even created wormholes on demand where one could send an object from a different era into another.
Most stayed speechless while others tried to steal it. Unfortunately for the thieves, the Phelixius had a mind of its own and only knew one true master which it always returned to, Phantasmos, via self-teleportation. It also proved that it could manipulate space by creating black holes and even new planets. Phantasmos' rivals had no say or even a competing invention; they soon faded into history as the people who had lost their minds and ways from the likes of a mere invention.
#39: Wrangling
The battle grew intense as the guns fired upon the Metal Heads. Captain Silos launched himself to the battlefield below; he performed a few flips and brought out his sword from its holster. Aggressively, he slammed into a tank with enormous force which caused a wave of dust and rock to push outward. More tanks and soldiers marched towards the rhino Metal Head, firing every step in an attempt to weaken him. He snarled and charged through the open field as the tanks sped up; he did not care.
He unleashed his sword, held it up in the air before it began to glow, and shot it straight into the ground. The Earth's floor cracked violently and exploded anything on or next to the ripped openings. The tanks ceased fire as they got caught within the crevices in the Earth. The power of the sword spiraled through the rips and crushed the tanks which then erupted into metal fireballs. The Captain lifted his sword up to rest on his shoulders as he watched the chaos unfold among the human ranks.
#40: Wanderlust
The galaxy held many secrets, but Tigressa knew them all. She existed at the time of the Solar System's creation; it had nothing special that interested her except one item. Earth, however, surprised her. It survived a lot longer than anybody from her home planet had expected. Despite her hatred for humanity, she decided to tour the planet and found that everything there stayed peaceful with only a few wars here and there. Her desire to circle the planet did not last, for she eventually noticed the humans took advantage of the life around them and destroyed whatever they wanted with no reason at all. Amusingly, she acted similarly.
Humans did not care for anything beside themselves; she noticed she sounded somewhat hypocritical when she thought that. Earth turned from a tranquil planet to a bomb waiting to go off. No one on the wretched planet deserved to live, for even she respected the animals and plants around her and would put them to use, not pulverize them. Besides the obvious fact, Tigressa continued to travel around the world each year and found new interesting characters arise from the billions of Earth's civilians. Earth had fascinated her a couple times, so why not go around each year to check on the planet's doomed inhabitants to see what unfolds?
AN: Another set of little stories to pass the time. Oh boy!